Kaffir Boy Quotes

“Voracious reading was like an anesthesia, numbing me to the harsh life around me.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

“I think my mother's and Granny's storytelling had had the same effect upon me when a child, as the reading of books: my mind was stimulated, my creativity encouraged.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

“Let us not rest until we are free to live in dignity in the land of our birth.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

“There is a death far worse than physical death, and that is the death of the mind and soul, when, despite toiling night and day, under sweltering heat, torrential rain, blistering winds, you still cannot make enough to clothe, shelter and feed your loved ones, suffering miles away, forcibly separated from you.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

“Learn as much as you can, while the opportunity is still there.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography

“Don’t be afraid now. They’re still in the next neighbourhood. I was in the outhouse when the alarm came.” “When the alarm came” meant people leaping over fences in a mad dash to escape the police.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

“Throughout all the years that I lived in South Africa, people were to call me a fool for refusing to live life the way they did and by doing the things they did. Little did they realise that in our world, the black world, one could only survive if one played the fool, and bided his time.  ”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

“Gradually, I came to accept hunger as a constant companion. But this new hunger was different. It filled me with hatred, confusion, helplessness, hopelessness, anxiety, loneliness, selfishness and a cynical attitude toward people.”
― Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa